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Topic: Guess what Chas just ordered for his car? (Read 8329 times)

It's been a long time coming, but I finnaly have them on the way. This is something that not only will look cool, but be completely functional as well. What this thing does is much needed by many US spec cars. And it will work with my currrent set up perfectly. I spent a click over $300 for the kit. And it is suppose to be easily installed in about 30 minutes. I'm betting it'll take an hour for me because I'll be extra anal about it to make it look nice. And the color is blue!

I got the www.hid-lights.com X5 kit. It only came in either 8000K or 9000K so I opted for the 8000K. I really wanted to use 6000K bulbs for the most light output, but they didn't offer the X5 kit with those bulbs. The X5 kit has the ballast and ignitors built into the same small box, much like the Hella units. They look pretty much like a Hella ballast really. I really hope they come this week before I take off for Vail. :cry: :cry: :wink: :roll:

Well the headlight housing I'm using now aren't quite stock. Errr, well they are in Europe. They are basically the Hella HID projector style housings that came with Halogen bulbs. They also have the cool leveling motors built into them which I still need to wire up. So the HID kit will slide right into these housings and look as if they came that way from the factory. Madigan has these same housings on his '99 Variant 1.8T Passat. But he's using the Hella ballasts and H1 bulbs rated at 6000K. And his set up kicks ass! Very bright with a very sharp cut off as not to blind on coming drivers.

At the time, the lowest temp I could find was 6000k (which are borderline) so that's what I went with. I initially wanted 4300k, but I am happy with my current setup and they do seem a little bit brighter than the OEM 4300k bulbs in the TT.

My setup was pieced together... I found a pair of rebased H1 bulbs and then pulled OEM ballasts from a wrecked A6. I then used the OEM brackets (only have 1 so far) from the OEM HIDS, which mount right to my headlights for a clean look.

I don't mind xenon kits, but I don't like how many components there are. The OEM ballasts are nice because everything is contained in one unit.

Mark is right, I really didn't want the 8000K color temp of these bulbs, but that's the way the kit I wanted (one box only, ignitors and ballasts in one little box much like the Hella HIDs are) came. It's a very clean kit as well.

At 8000K these bulbs will be on the very blue-ish color spectrem, but not as purple as he is thinking. It takes the 9000K and higher to do that. I'll have to look into if these ballasts I have coming will work with 6000K bulbs or not.

The way you look at it is this: 5600 Kelvin is the color of day light on a sunny Colorado day. In other words, fairly blue. 3200 Kelvin is the color temp that a 60 watt bulb puts out. Or put another way, very yellow looking. the standard Halogen bulb is somewhere in between.

As for Randy putting in higher wattage bulbs, that would not be a good idea. Higher wattage bulbs also put off higher heat and that can cause the headlamp housings to melt and the lenses to dis-color or cloud over. Not a good idea at all. There are better types of standard wattage bulbs out there. I personally like the Phillips Vision Plus bulbs. They shine at a truer white than the stock bulbs that come from the factory.

That's what I have in the picture I posted above. Nice bulb, but slightly pricey. But no where near the cost of a full on HID kit.

Randy, if your car has projector headlamps that have halogen bulbs in them. Then you could easily upgrade to an HID kit and have all the same advantages Mark and I will have. Sharp cut off and bright/white light! Putting a HID kit into a car without the projector lenses is fairly pointless. The standard US spec. headlamp without the projector lenses is just going to spread that nice white light all over the road and cause issues with other oncoming drivers. Basically what Rusty was complaining about.

As for Randy putting in higher wattage bulbs, that would not be a good idea. Higher wattage bulbs also put off higher heat and that can cause the headlamp housings to melt and the lenses to dis-color or cloud over. Not a good idea at all. There are better types of standard wattage bulbs out there. I personally like the Phillips Vision Plus bulbs. They shine at a truer white than the stock bulbs that come from the factory.

Randy, if your car has projector headlamps that have halogen bulbs in them. Then you could easily upgrade to an HID kit and have all the same advantages Mark and I will have. Sharp cut off and bright/white light! Putting a HID kit into a car without the projector lenses is fairly pointless. The standard US spec. headlamp without the projector lenses is just going to spread that nice white light all over the road and cause issues with other oncoming drivers. Basically what Rusty was complaining about.

Melting my housing is my concern, that is why I have not changed the bulbs. So I know I will not be doing that!!

I am not sure what the light set up in my car is, so I will find out. I would be interrested in a HID kit, so where would you recommend to get it?

Randy, I'll wait till I get my kit before recommending it to anyone. I guess I'm being the guinne pig on this one.

Winston, that first graphical display you posted is nice, but very inaccurate. Color temps in K (Kelvin) are something I deal with on a daily basis for work. TV cameras have to be told what white looks like. This is known as a white balance. White has every color of the rainbow in it, so once white is determined then the rest fall into line. The only thing on that first graphical display that is even close to being right is the fluroescent bulb. And then they only put out 4500K if they are the very expensive, day light balanced bulbs. The garden variety fluro. bulb is actually more of a green color in the high 3000K range to the low 4000K range. Remember the higher the number, the bluer the color temp. The lower the number, the yellower the color temp. So a mix of yellow and blue makes for a nice icky green color.

In all the years of doing TV work I have never seen a sunrise anywhere near 1000K, more like 3500K. Trust me, I've seen more sunrises and sunsets than you'd imagine. They are awsome to see and always go from a very blue before the sun rises to a fantastic yellow or red as the ball cracks the horizon line. Sunsets are simular, but not as dramatic as the sun is already out. But fun things can happen then too. On a sunset over water there is an effect that can happen called the Green Fire. As the ball of the sun approaches the watery horizon line there can sometimes be a flash of green as it "touches" the water. Very cool, I've only seen it once in California.

On a clear sky, sunny, mid day the color temp is always around 5200K to 6000K. It is only when the sky clouds over that the color temp can rises to around 8-9000K (very, very blue). For some reason the clouds filter out the red/yellow parts of the color spectrum leaving only the blue to pass through.

The second graphical representation is more correct. I'd throw that first one in the trash and never look at it again.

Sorry, just telling you what I have learned from over ten year experience in TV work.